You're not out of touch, the industry is. I firmly believe that nobody knows what they are doing when it comes to hiring and everyone is just following each ot

You're not out of touch, the industry is. I firmly believe that nobody knows what they are doing when it comes to hiring and everyone is just following each other. It's as if interview loops are so long winded that only the ones with enough willpower/endurance survive. They also tend to expand so much time that each company is hopeful to find a better candidate in that duration. Yet corporations don't tend to take into account optimal stopping into their hiring practices and end with less than ideal candidates or come out with no candidate at all. Personally I think more companies should hire faster and improve their performance evaluation processes to fire faster. It shouldn't take more than 2-3 interviews to get enough "data points" that someone has potential to grow in the position. Especially at this level of pay and responsibility, you should have something online to show you're competent already. Everything else is corporatism and appeasing the social agenda. Some big tech companies you can get hired and never get fired. Other companies you can get PIP'd although you'd be a 10x contributor at another big tech company. The goal posts will continue to move as tech jobs become more accessible to the world. I think that's a good thing, but I think we should challenge what is normal to land a job in the first place. 5-7 is ridiculous and costly for all parties involved.